Oncoman
Active member
Day 3: Coburn
Another easy hike, but under intermittent rain. On the good side, no bugs! Was back to my car in just under 3 hrs. Didn’t bother to climb the fire tower since there was zero visibility on the summit. BTW I would suggest to take the excellent herd path up the summit after the gate, instead of the last ½ m. on the now closed ATV trail. The entry point is located about 50-60 yards from the gate & marked with a cairn. Mind you the grade is quite steep, 350 ft in less than 0,3 m. so that you may consider going up by the more gradual ATV trail & looping back down by the herd path. The car drive to the Moxie Mtn was long & slow due to my stopping over to check out the impressive Moxie Falls and due to a very rough 9 miles section on Troutdale Rd from the Lake Moxie Rd intersection to the Bingham-Solon day use only camping area at the Big Dimmick Pond dirt road turn off. That road section is full of holes allowing only an average speed of about 15 mph. I would suggest instead arriving from the south, since that part of Troutdale Rd was recently graded, but road conditions are susceptible to change rapidly & constantly I guess for those Maine back roads. I finally arrived at my intended parking spot 3 m. from Troutdale Rd at 16h under heavy rain. Took it easy, ate, relaxed, read, started writing my trip report & went to bed early since I was planning for a day break start for the Moxie bushwhack.
Day 4: Moxie
Rose at 04h45 and started my bushwhack at the dead end of the logging rd at 05h30 again under the rain. Calibrated my altimeter for 1700 ft, corrected my compass for the -18° deviation & set a bearing of 240° off shooting the slide by 10° planning to turn to the right at 2000 ft following that contour line to the slide. To my surprise things worked even better than planned since I caught dead on the bottom of the slide while I expected to hit it higher up. The rapidly changing air pressures must have affected my altimeter readings. I was very lucky since I could have thus missed the slide all together. In retrospect I should have given myself another 200 ft of security for uncertainty. On top of the slide I headed towards the SW, encountering a bit of blow down spots & a few 6-8 ft cliff edges but nothing too vicious to manage. The summit of Moxie is somewhat flat with a few false peaks about 10-20 ft lower than the true pk, such that it was extremely valuable information to know that there was an helicopter pad & communications huts on the true summit.
Since it was only 07h30 by the time I was ready to turn back I decided to change my hiking plans and go back down Moxie on the western side towards logging rds spotted on my map, walk out to ME201, hitchhike north to Lake Moxie Rd than to Troutdale Rd and then to Big Dimmick Rd & finally walk up the final 3 m. logging rd to my car. Things worked out beautifully almost as planned.
First off let me tell you that there exists a very pleasant blazed trail with red & blue tape from the Moxie summit to the logging rds on the western side of the mountain. The trail follows the ridge thus likely offering nice views. Unfortunately with the rain & clouds I was not so blessed. The drop off the ridge is a bit steep but actually fun to do on the way down. Lower down the trail is grown in and with blow down such that great care is needed in order not to lose the trail but stay calm, search around and sure enough you will find red tape ribbons to guide you along. However the exit point is a very well hidden treasure impossible to find unless you knew precisely where to go. Even myself would not feel very confident to find it since after the last red tape you come to a swampy open area. There I turned right and 100 ft farter found an ancient herd path almost fully grown in. Following this path for a few 100 ft brings you to an old logging rd also very grown in with brushes to your waist. There I turned left and shortly thereafter encountered a more recent logging rd. Again turned left & then followed the rds as per map to ME201. I figure a 1,4 m. bushwhack up Moxie from the east, a 2,4 m. trail hike down Moxie on the west side & a 6,5-7 m. rd walk to ME201 if no car spot.
The hitchhiking part initially went very well. Caught a ride to The Forks within 5 min. and within 15 min. for Lake Moxie but the Troutdale Rd turned out to be a deserted road despite numerous camps along the lake. No one it seems took an early Friday afternoon off work for the cottage on that cloudy rainy day. Only 2 cars drove by me during the 2½ hrs it took me to walk that 9 m. rd section. They must have figured I needed the exercise. No comment. About ½ way up the 3 m. long logging rd to my car I passed a 4W drive truck parked on the left side with no one around it seemed. To my surprise 5 min. later the spotted truck had turned around and pulled behind me & the driver kindly offered me a ride. I was by then so tired that I was ready to drop on my knees in from of his truck to beg him to take me along. That last 1½ m. ride was short but pure joy to my aching leg muscles. What a tough long day especially for a 4th consecutive day of hiking. Not sure I would want to do that again. Drove off at 16h15 and was home at 20h20. I must confess that I did exceed by moments the speed limits on ME16.
Pierre
Track record as of June 11th 2006
Lists in order of priority Non-Winter Winter
1. ADK 46/46 46/46
2. Whites 4K 48/48 0/48
3. NE 4K 64/67 0/67
4. NEHH 84/100 0/100
5. 111 (115) 108/111 44/111
6. formerly listed peaks 5/7 1/7
7. NEFF 25/50 0/50
8. ADK 100 47/100 47/100
9. Québec 1000 meters 1/75 Not in my plans
10. Colorado 14ers 0/55 Not in my plans
Another easy hike, but under intermittent rain. On the good side, no bugs! Was back to my car in just under 3 hrs. Didn’t bother to climb the fire tower since there was zero visibility on the summit. BTW I would suggest to take the excellent herd path up the summit after the gate, instead of the last ½ m. on the now closed ATV trail. The entry point is located about 50-60 yards from the gate & marked with a cairn. Mind you the grade is quite steep, 350 ft in less than 0,3 m. so that you may consider going up by the more gradual ATV trail & looping back down by the herd path. The car drive to the Moxie Mtn was long & slow due to my stopping over to check out the impressive Moxie Falls and due to a very rough 9 miles section on Troutdale Rd from the Lake Moxie Rd intersection to the Bingham-Solon day use only camping area at the Big Dimmick Pond dirt road turn off. That road section is full of holes allowing only an average speed of about 15 mph. I would suggest instead arriving from the south, since that part of Troutdale Rd was recently graded, but road conditions are susceptible to change rapidly & constantly I guess for those Maine back roads. I finally arrived at my intended parking spot 3 m. from Troutdale Rd at 16h under heavy rain. Took it easy, ate, relaxed, read, started writing my trip report & went to bed early since I was planning for a day break start for the Moxie bushwhack.
Day 4: Moxie
Rose at 04h45 and started my bushwhack at the dead end of the logging rd at 05h30 again under the rain. Calibrated my altimeter for 1700 ft, corrected my compass for the -18° deviation & set a bearing of 240° off shooting the slide by 10° planning to turn to the right at 2000 ft following that contour line to the slide. To my surprise things worked even better than planned since I caught dead on the bottom of the slide while I expected to hit it higher up. The rapidly changing air pressures must have affected my altimeter readings. I was very lucky since I could have thus missed the slide all together. In retrospect I should have given myself another 200 ft of security for uncertainty. On top of the slide I headed towards the SW, encountering a bit of blow down spots & a few 6-8 ft cliff edges but nothing too vicious to manage. The summit of Moxie is somewhat flat with a few false peaks about 10-20 ft lower than the true pk, such that it was extremely valuable information to know that there was an helicopter pad & communications huts on the true summit.
Since it was only 07h30 by the time I was ready to turn back I decided to change my hiking plans and go back down Moxie on the western side towards logging rds spotted on my map, walk out to ME201, hitchhike north to Lake Moxie Rd than to Troutdale Rd and then to Big Dimmick Rd & finally walk up the final 3 m. logging rd to my car. Things worked out beautifully almost as planned.
First off let me tell you that there exists a very pleasant blazed trail with red & blue tape from the Moxie summit to the logging rds on the western side of the mountain. The trail follows the ridge thus likely offering nice views. Unfortunately with the rain & clouds I was not so blessed. The drop off the ridge is a bit steep but actually fun to do on the way down. Lower down the trail is grown in and with blow down such that great care is needed in order not to lose the trail but stay calm, search around and sure enough you will find red tape ribbons to guide you along. However the exit point is a very well hidden treasure impossible to find unless you knew precisely where to go. Even myself would not feel very confident to find it since after the last red tape you come to a swampy open area. There I turned right and 100 ft farter found an ancient herd path almost fully grown in. Following this path for a few 100 ft brings you to an old logging rd also very grown in with brushes to your waist. There I turned left and shortly thereafter encountered a more recent logging rd. Again turned left & then followed the rds as per map to ME201. I figure a 1,4 m. bushwhack up Moxie from the east, a 2,4 m. trail hike down Moxie on the west side & a 6,5-7 m. rd walk to ME201 if no car spot.
The hitchhiking part initially went very well. Caught a ride to The Forks within 5 min. and within 15 min. for Lake Moxie but the Troutdale Rd turned out to be a deserted road despite numerous camps along the lake. No one it seems took an early Friday afternoon off work for the cottage on that cloudy rainy day. Only 2 cars drove by me during the 2½ hrs it took me to walk that 9 m. rd section. They must have figured I needed the exercise. No comment. About ½ way up the 3 m. long logging rd to my car I passed a 4W drive truck parked on the left side with no one around it seemed. To my surprise 5 min. later the spotted truck had turned around and pulled behind me & the driver kindly offered me a ride. I was by then so tired that I was ready to drop on my knees in from of his truck to beg him to take me along. That last 1½ m. ride was short but pure joy to my aching leg muscles. What a tough long day especially for a 4th consecutive day of hiking. Not sure I would want to do that again. Drove off at 16h15 and was home at 20h20. I must confess that I did exceed by moments the speed limits on ME16.
Pierre
Track record as of June 11th 2006
Lists in order of priority Non-Winter Winter
1. ADK 46/46 46/46
2. Whites 4K 48/48 0/48
3. NE 4K 64/67 0/67
4. NEHH 84/100 0/100
5. 111 (115) 108/111 44/111
6. formerly listed peaks 5/7 1/7
7. NEFF 25/50 0/50
8. ADK 100 47/100 47/100
9. Québec 1000 meters 1/75 Not in my plans
10. Colorado 14ers 0/55 Not in my plans
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